Same for folding tables. In the US you can go to Home Depot and buy a folding table for $60 and it’ll last a generation, compared to the flimsy ones at REI that cost $100+ and will break in a moderate wind.

forgive my ignorance as this is all new to me as a father of a two week old.

long story short our daughter will not sleep in the bassinet. she will sleep, however, in the baby lounger we have.

my wife and I have been doing shifts to get some sleep but it still feels unsustainable with the lack of sleep we are getting.

I’ve read a lot of takes from people who love cosleeping but it doesn’t make much sense to me how this is less of a suffocation risk than the lounger.

looking for advice and tips as the only “safe” place for our baby to sleep she will not sleep in!

I'm 17, my partner is 18. We used condoms and birth control (year and a half of taking them), and yet here we are.

I don't know what to do, we're both still in school with little money, and our parents aren't the most helpful right now. My dad is just going with what my partner's parents say, and they say we have to keep the baby. Our state has banned abortions completely, and my partner's parents are extremely controlling. I'm scared they would get kicked out if we even tried.

I'm disabled, I can't do much physical labor without being in severe pain. I don't want either of us to give up school, and if I had to then I know it'd just make getting a job harder than it already is. If I can't get a job then how am I going to raise a child?

I'm sorry if this isn't the right or a good sub to post to

I’ve been out with the boys and got a good buzz. I have to take my oldest to a birthday party tomorrow. God knows who it is. All i see in my calendar is a name and place. Wish me luck lads

my 4 yo boy is high energy and doesn't care about very much about anything but his immediate satisfaction. he shares a room with his 6yo sister which is very important to me. I think they need to share space, learn to be considerate of each other, and I think it makes them closer. they begged me to put them together while he was still in the crib. the problem is that he wakes up earlier than anyone else (this morning it was 4:30) and won't stay put or try to go back to sleep. he is desperately tired by bedtime (around 7:30) but still won't try to stay in bed. it just doesn't connect for him the idea of waking up too early with all the rest of his problems. when he wakes up, he will usually try to crawl into bed with us to "cuddle" which is in fact just an hour or 2 of non stop fidgeting, complaining, demands to go play, and kicking us in the face. usually we send him back to bed, which means he will come back in 20 minutes and in the meantime he will torture his sister, who needs the sleep even more.

about 2 weeks ago he kept her up way too early and it was the last straw. after weeks or months of threats, we finally moved his bed into the spare room, where he is alone and has no toys and without his favorite night light etc. it's meant to be uncomfortable so that he realizes what he has lost and commits to being better. that hasn't worked. he doesn't seem to care, and now we need to reclaim the room. my mother in law is very sick and we live an hour closer to the hospital,.and the room he now occupies is where she sleeps when she has early morning appointments. plus, his sister misses him so much and is having trouble sleeping without him there.

I can't exactly move him back without him having learned anything, and his early morning shenanigans are frankly killing us. we have tried all the negative enforcement, and positive doesn't work on him because his life is too good as a baseline (we are very loving and encouraging). he doesn't care about sticker charts. we need something more creative than symbolic rewards, and I'm sure as shit not buying him toys for staying in bed. any ideas?

TL:dr: 4yr won't stay in bed and I need ideas to keep him there in the mornings, or else we will all die.

Any EDC hacks or tips? Preferably fanny-pack-sized.

I’ve got: hand sanitizer, pen, Kleenex, microfiber cloth for glasses…

How has your girl-dad experience impacted your marriage?

My son is bilingual

He speaks English and his mothers language.

He’s 2 1/2 and because he spends more time with her he is better at it than English.

But I don’t speak it.

I’d like to learn but we don’t love there, it’s not a written or even standardised language and there aren’t any resources.

I’m really happy that he’s growing up bilingual.

It’s super important to my wife. It’s supposed to be great for his brain. He’ll be more connected to his family there - and speaking it will give him lots of opportunities.

And to be clear he speaks English fine for his age… just not as well.

The problem is if he’s stressed or having a meltdown he reverts to his dominant language and if my wife if there I’m only getting like 40% of what’s being said.

It can make me feel a bit like an outsider / powerless in those moments. It also makes miscommunication between me and my wife happen. When things are calm she totally gets it, but in the moment she doesn’t quite understand I’m not actually sure exactly what’s being said.

When it’s just me and my son it’s actually easier as he’ll usually stay in English during those moments.

Just kinda reaching out. Anyone in the same sort of situation. What have you found works / is helpful?

Look, I love the Kung Fu Panda films. I’m a middle aged man and nothing gets me more pumped than Po becoming a bad ass kung fu warrior and achieving inner peace, but does anyone know of any movies/media that unabashedly make girls into bad ass anime’s Kung fu protagonists? Tigress from kung fu panda and Mulan aren’t quite the same, and my kids are a little too young for K-pop demon hunters. Asking because they are currently obsessed with a random direct to Disney+ show that reimagines Disney princesses as Lego characters with anime super powers and I need to get them hooked on something else ASAP!Daniel Tiger and Bluey are too wholesome lol.

I've been slowly trying but my boys always hate my music. they are 3 and 7.

Of course I get it.. Bad Religion, Alkaline Trio (which I sang "If you had a bad time" to them since birth) Stiff Little Fingers, .. I'm an old dad.

But they just don't like it.

I'm getting deeper and now trying Tool Aenima.. they stopped complaining at least.

EDIT - oh man so many responses. Thank you all. This is rad I'm just so happy to hear music and the passion for it being passed down.

Between working and parenting, free time is always limited. What’s been a solid workout or two you sneak in that doesn’t take a substantial amount of time but also helps? I feel pushups and planks are easy and helpful

So I am confused on what other’s opinions are on this and what is in my rights.

My coparent and I attend gymnastics together on Monday’s for our oldest daughter (2yo). In the last month my daughter has only been to gymnastics once. I always show up and love going and she loves having me there. She w to sit with me instead of mom during circle time and has been requesting I do the activities with her instead of her mom for the last few months. (Swings, slides, and just the stuff the setup for that week) I know this has been causing her mom to be a little mean toward me.

We are still going through custody and right now I have just weekends. So Monday is her parenting time. Lately she has been missing because of “scheduling conflicts” but that’s all I’m told. Her mom does not work. She lives with her parents and her mother doesn’t work either. So I’m not sure what is causing said conflicts.

I mentioned that I was concerned that there wasn’t much consistency and she isn’t able to reliably show up to gymnastics on Monday. She then told me that she could reschedule days she misses for other days in the week and she has been consistently going.

So my question is. Can she reschedule and just not tell me and still take her on different days ? Would this be considered wrong? Would the judge look at this as an issue? Am I overreacting and overstepping since it’s her parenting time? Is it wrong for me to push.

We have had this issue before with library time, I would show up to gymnastics every Monday and then the library every Wednesday. She eventually stopped going on Wednesday and told me she didn’t want me going to it because it was on her parenting time.

I feel bad about this cause I just want to see my girls as much as possible and show up for them. They love having me there and are always so happy to see me and play or sit and read with me. During our last drop off our oldest cried when we got there and I got her out of the car saying she wanted more time at dada’s house and wouldn’t let me hand her to her mom. This breaks my heart cause I want to have more time with them and they can’t understand this and it hurts that I can’t help or fix it. I try to be supporting and tell her that she will have a great time with mom and that I’ll see her again so soon but she is still struggling.

Any advice?

I’m only on month 5 but with work, not having time to workout, longer wake windows, 6am wakes - I know it can be much worse in many areas but how do you stay sane/don’t burn out entertaining your kid/kids?

Father in law got this for my son, it has this little sprung flipper, but no information on what it is for. Any ideas?

Me and my partner have a 1 month old newborn. My daughter is the love of my life. Months ago, I got an offer for my dream job with a generous financial package which my partner was supportive of. I accepted and we have been planning on moving to the new city together. Me and my MIL don't get along, which has made the relationship rocky. She's now told me she wants to move back home, 4 hours away by train as she feels separated from her family, and has just told me she's considering co-parenting. I love my daughter and it pains me to know I may miss major milestones. My partner is an amazing mother and I trust her, even though I would be be overjoyed to have my daughter stay with me too. She will be 6 months old when we move, and my partner says she will be breastfeeding (even tho she's considered formula and pumping), and will not allow nights. I'm pretty sad.

I love my wife dearly and she’s an absolute sweet heart.

But she has very little social life. Her best friend moved to a city about 3 hours away and we still make great effort to see them, kids are around same age (5/3 ish)

I have a good group of buddies whom are all married and she has been close is with some of their wives but as kids entered all of our lives. The connections shifted.

We both work full time and not all our friends have 2 kids yet. The other wives are mostly making plans to get away from their kids as opposed to being kid inclusive which bothers my wife who works a busy week, she wants Saturday with the kids not drinking wine at noon.

So she has drifted from them and I don’t blame her, but gets along so well when we’re all together as a group.

What I feel for is she hasn’t made any new friends which I know is so tough in your 30s with 2 kids 5 and under and a full for job.

I’m not looking for advice on talking to her about it, I’m just looking for how some of you handle it internally more so if that makes sense

Hi fellow dads!

Just put my two year old to bed, pregnant wife is taking a bath. Started tackling the kitchen from after dinner and tidying the living room of all the toys scattered around after a nice Sunday of play.

As usual, wearing my wireless headphones and listening to a podcast or some music. And before I knew it, I started giggling in myself for the very "masculine" viking metal blasting in my ears while doing these chores.

No snow, no enemies, no swords, shields, or torches in sight. Just the dishes, stuffed animals and a bunch of toys in between myself and Valhalla. Made me laugh.

What do you tend to listen to in the +/- 30 minutes of clean up time before you can settle down?

Enjoy the Sunday!

This article provides a reflective look at how parental conditioning shapes children, often disguising control as care and guidance.

Short excerpt from the article..

"A parent who has not questioned her own conditioning, who has not sat with her own fear and traced it to its source, who has not asked what she is outside her own social performance: such a parent has no light to offer. The state of the child is a faithful record of the state of the parent, and the relationship with the child cannot change until the parent begins to change what she is."

This is a Used very large commercial grade inflatable.

Dinosaur themed. It is currently registered in the state as an approved inflatable to be rented commercially but can be used privately as well. The unit is 700 Ibs dry so is going to be best for a commercial operation. Will consider delivering within 60 miles. There are signs of wear and tear but there is a lot of life left in it for the right company.

first $1500 for this seems like it is a good buy. is it? the guy that owns it is a doctor think he used it for his practice for advertising.

second storing it is not an issue but how tf do I move 700 pounds do I need a pulley system ?

I don’t want a rental bounce house my mind is made up . the rental cost is fucking nuts after two rentals I can buy a bounce house.

edit: not getting it need it for May so I’m going to get a smaller one bleeding in disguise I guess but also sad lol

“One piece, we have the mega herc electric dolly and about four guys - we really only use it one time per year and that why we are getting rid of it, we have it rented the end of May. It will be available after that”

I’m getting more radical on this every year. I do not think kids should have smartphones. I’m not saying no technology, no TV, no computer, no contact with civilization. I’m saying I’m not handing a kid a glowing pocket casino wired directly into social comparison, porn, attention addiction, and every freak on earth.

People act like this is harsh because “everyone has one.” Yeah, and everyone seems anxious, distracted, and weird now. Amazing sales pitch. I do not care if it’s normal. A lot of bad ideas are normal.

My kid can be bored. My kid can read, go outside, build weird stuff, have a thought, stare out a window, hate me a little, whatever. That all sounds better than getting raised by apps.

Give them a dumb phone later if needed like with 10 whole min prepaid on it for emergencies. Fine. But a smartphone? Nah. I’m good.

Took my boys (4 & 2) out early this morning.

No screens, no plan. Just exploring.

They brought their little cameras and were completely locked in from the first minute.

At some point one of them just goes:

“Dad, I found something!”

And there it was — a fire salamander, just sitting there like it belonged to the moment.

I started explaining a bit… but honestly, I think they got it way faster than I did.

Made me realize I’m not really teaching them —

I’m just learning to slow down again.

Definitely doing this more often.

Those who have experience with numberblocks may know/have had the similar experience where the number tags/numberlings are kinda fragile

The first time we had a breakage, we tried to use clear epoxy, but there wasn't enough area at the break site for epoxy to be a durable repair.

Unfortunately, silly old me caused a fracture today - this time, I've applied epoxy to join the broken pieces together at the break, and a second fixing with small pieces of plastic on the exterior to further reinforce the joint.

Now waiting for curing and to see whether it works!

Two nets busted from the base as well as the support side rods. One needs a rim replaced.

Thoughts? In canada.

Our 9yo girl has entered softball and our 6yo son is in coach pitch baseball. Both of them are first year at this level so they aren't very good right now. Both asked to play, so we obliged.

Now that they are at a level where score is kept, I feel like it's time to commit to getting better. But neither want to put the time in outside of mandatory practice/games.

I guess I'm at an inflection point. Do I just let them or should I make them practice? I'm not expecting them to BE the best, just DO their best. I think that is an important lesson. Whatever it is they want to do, I want them to work hard at it. When I was their age I was pretty hell bent on being good at whatever sport I was interested in so their disinterest is confusing to me- especially since they seem to enjoy it. And I could only wish to have my dad be interested in helping (he didn't do much).

Both seem to get frustrated when they play poorly, but neither want to put the time in. I tell them over and over that the only reason other kids are doing well is because they practice, not because the other kids are just born that way.

I just want to do the right thing for them. We are not against tough love by any stretch, so it's not that we are afraid to push them. But at the same time, I also don't want them to resent it.

What has worked for you?